Denver developers give glimpse of new downtown projects

Three developers who are changing Denver’s skyline delivered details about their projects to a group of business officials Thursday morning.

The three projects included an under-construction office building called Triangle Building by Chris Frampton, managing partner at East West Partners; a dual-branded Hyatt hotel tower by Matt Frankiewicz, senior director at White Lodging Services Corp.; and an apartment complex called the Platform at Union Station by Erik Hagevik, COO of Holland Partner Group.

“All of us build buildings,” moderator Bill Mosher, senior managing director at Trammel Crow Co., said of the developers. “But you all, and the Downtown Denver Partnership, are the community that creates places. This community and place-based design has made Denver a great city and gives us a great opportunity to go forward.”

Mosher’s comments were directed at a crowd of more than 300 gathered for the DDP’s second annual development forum at the Embassy Suites Denver-Downtown/Convention Center hotel.

It won’t be a traditional office building, he said; instead it will be geared to the millennials who seek inspiration from office space.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the saying we shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us,” Frampton said. “And it will shape the culture of a company.”

As part of that, the Triangle will have a $2 million, 160-spot bike station called “Travel by Bike” where employees can park bikes, then shower. There will also be a co-working type environment in many of the building’s spaces, and lobby areas, to encourage employee interaction.

The developers are seeking LEED Gold certification for the Triangle building and expect it to be complete “mid-2015,” he said.

“We were attracted by the convention business here, which generates 650,000 room nights per year,” Frankeiwicz said.

The company also like the “diversity of room night demand” with corporations, leisure, medical, education and government. “It’s unique to have the two brands in one building,” said Frankeiwicz, adding the Hyatt House is geared for stays longer than five nights and has rooms with kitchenette and dining areas.

It also creates a “operational synergy” with only having to have one management team and things like shared mechanical systems and HVAC, he said.

Hagevik said Holland work for years to secure the land near Denver Union Station before being able to break ground on 21-story Platform project.

Plans call for 287 apartments, a 15th-floor amenity deck with a pool and 263 parking spaces, which is only 0.93 spaces per unit (lower than the average 1.25 spaces per unit).

“This is the place to do that lower-ratio parking, with the light rail and the train tracks right here,” Hagevik said. “Residents will be able to ride to the airport by train without having to pay for parking there.”

The average apartment size will be 815 square feet, with 69 percent of those being a one-bedroom unit with an asking rent range of $1,350 to $1,975.

2,733,093 square feet of office space have been added or under construction.

2,297 hotel rooms have been added or under construction.

The DDP also said almost $5 billion of total development investment has been made in the last five years (counting $1.8 billion under construction and $3 billion completed since 2008). And 24 projects are scheduled to be completed this year or have already been completed.